'Friends' star Courteney Cox almost left Hollywood in the '80s, father told her it was 'time to pack it in'
'Friends' star Courteney Cox shared the interesting career path she might have pursued if acting didn't work out
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This week, Courteney Cox's celebrity was cemented into the ground on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the actress receiving her very own star. But things could have taken a drastic turn had she quit when her father told her that her time in Hollywood was up.
"My dad thought I should give up, really," Cox admitted on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Tuesday.
"What happened was I hadn't worked in a long time and I only had enough money to live about two weeks, and really eat. That was it," she admitted of her days as a struggling actor.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So I was talking to my dad and he was like…‘You need to come home… It's a long fall from Los Angeles to Birmingham and it's time to pack it in.'"
'FRIENDS' STAR COURTENEY COX DIDN'T THINK HOLLYWOOD SUCCESS WAS 'POSSIBILITY' GROWING UP IN ALABAMA
Courteney Cox shared the alternate career path her father wanted her to pursue when she was struggling as an actress in Hollywood. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Deadline Hollywood)
Cox's late father was a pool salesman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You are a salesman. You're a damn good salesman, and you need to come home and do what you do best...sell swimming pools,'" Cox recalled her father telling her, while accepting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this week.
Admitting she knew the pool industry was a fallback, Cox was saved by her big break.
‘FRIENDS’ STAR COURTENEY COX SHOWS OFF FIT FIGURE AS A ‘GEN Z GIRL’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I was like, ‘Dad…' and then the next day I got a call saying the audition I had gone on for ‘Family Ties,' I got the part as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend for the last two years," Cox said on Kimmel.
Cox starred as Lauren Miller in the sitcom from 1987 through 1989. She would later go on to star in "Friends" and the "Scream" franchise.
Courteney Cox says that when she landed the role of Lauren Miller in "Family Ties," she was literally afforded the opportunity to stay in Los Angeles. (NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cox shared to Kimmel that her father wasn't upset that she remained in California.
"He loved Hollywood. He loves movies, and he loves television."
Kimmel's wife Molly McNearney attended the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard and heard Cox tell this story live, when something mysterious happened.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Courteney Cox's "Friends" co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow showed up to support her at her Walk of Fame ceremony. (Gilbert Flores/Variety)
Kimmel aired the moment from the ceremony when Cox shared the anecdote and then thanked her sisters for flying into the city to celebrate.
"My mom would have loved this so much," Cox told the crowd, which was full of stars like Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Laura Dern, "but my Dad was obsessed with television."
Just as she mentioned her father, a flood of water broke through the seal of the tent covering the event.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Courteney Cox received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday. (Gilbert Flores/Variety)
"Wow! Sorry, Dad," Cox joked.
"If that isn't a message from the pool business above, I don't know what is," Kimmel told Cox back in the studio, to which Cox agreed.
Cox previously told Fox News Digital that "not in a million years" did she believe she would ever secure a star with her name.
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"I'm from Birmingham, Alabama… That's just not something you think would be a possibility, but I did know that ‘Friends’ was special," she admitted.